COMMONWEALTH BANK chairman Catherine Livingstone has faced intense scrutiny after she admitted to signing off on bonuses for bank executives while aware the bank had not complied with anti-money laundering legislation.

At a House of Representatives committee inquiry today, Ms Livingstone backed her previous decision to sign off on the bank’s 2016 financial year remuneration report which gave an “above target” strength rating on matters of risk management.

She was not yet chairman of the bank at the time. But she was still a member of the board that signed off on the report.

Liberal MP David Coleman, the chair of the economics committee, questioned Ms Livingstone’s decision to sign-off on the report.

The proposed action launched by AUSTRAC in August alleges CBA failed to provide on-time reports for 53,506 cash transactions of $10,000 or more between November 2012 and September 2015.

Ms Livingstone said while the CBA knew of the alleged breaches since August 2015, after Austrac queried the lender over a number of missing transactions, the bank was unaware of the legal action until a statement of claim was filed in the Federal Court in August 2017.

She said that staff could be fired if the lender finds any evidence of serious misconduct.

Ms Livingstone said there could be greater consequences for those who commit wrongdoing.

“Where claims of serious misconduct are substantiated, there are consequences, including dismissal,” Ms Livingstone told MPs in Canberra on Friday.

“People who underperform are supported to improve, however if their performance doesn’t improve they are also asked to leave.” Chief executive Ian Narev said no executives had been fired as a result of the AUSTRAC claims and none will be dismissed until the committee has completed a review of responsibility.

“They are not immune from any further conclusion that the committee may draw based on the facts that we have,” he said.

Mr Narev announced in August he will leave his role by the end of June, following the bank’s decision to “deal with speculation” over his position during the allegations.

He also had his short-term bonuses slashed, more than halving his annual pay to $5.5 million from $12.3 million the year before.